I binged season 2 of Hanna, a show that had glimpses of good in season 1. The second effort had more good than bad, though the ending was flat and unimaginative. The glimpses that season did offer looked deep into the psychological positioning of purpose and belonging. In my pursuit of less garbage in, I am pleased that I was able to get some good out of this show. This look into the psychology of brain washing was very stirring. It, along with what I am observing in my mythology course, is reminding me of how far people are willing to go in order to create a mental safety bubble.
Without giving too much away, the show is based on the idea that the American government has been breeding orphan girls to become assassins. This is not a new concept. In fact, the show is based off of the movie concept of the same name and a genetic match of La Femme Nikita and the upcoming Black Widow film. However, what I found interesting was how open and blatant the psy-ops part of it became. At a point in the development of these girls they are told–straight up–that they will now be giving names and histories and families. They are told to communicate with their ‘families’ via computer message in spite of knowing they don’t exists and will only ever be able to reach out to them via internet. They know these families are not real and instead are control mechanisms but they eventually all fall into the names and false lives constructed for them. As insane as that sounds, it makes total sense.
Every semester I teach mythology I watch deeply religious students brutally insult and attack the myths of other cultures–deeming them as false and arguing that only a prehistorically dumb human could ever believe such things. In the sam sentence they will exclaim about how there could never be a pantheon of Gods because there is only one true God. They remain unwilling to see that their mythology bears any resemblance to that of other cultures. This willful ignorance–this unwillingness to actually see similarities or the truth or the purpose of their own stuff is at the root of what I found interesting about that Hanna show.
Long story short (because, you know, 10 minutes) people are willing to sink deeply into their own beliefs if those beliefs make them feel safe, help them belong, or create a sense of purpose. Once that purposeful contagion takes root, it is very hard for most to see anything beyond their own truth.
Ask Trump supporters about that.